Jooce Desktop & Invites

Jooce allows you to access a desktop that is online. It has all your contacts (supports multi-networks), files: music, videos, photos, etc. No matter what computer you use, you will always have access to your files. This can be useful if you don’t have a large hard drive to store files you want where ever you go. Also great if you are someone who goes to an Internet cafe.

In my last post, Desktop Applications or Web Applications?, I had mentioned two similar services to Jooce: Goowy and YouOS.  All three, Goowy, Jooce and YouOS, offer most of the same features. Of the three, Jooce is the prettiest with Goowy right behind it.

Jooce has so many features. Instantly share files by dragging and dropping them. Watch videos, view photos, listen to music and play games. Check your e-mail, chat with friends and build your social network. Customize the look of your online desktop. Watch the How To Be Sejooced videos.

Invites

I have invites available for only four people. Normally, I just give invites out for free. This time I would like to see you do something for it. I want you to write on your own blog about Jooce and why you would like using a desktop on the web.

Instructions:

1. Leave a comment here saying you are going to write a post. This reserves your invite.
2. You have five hours after you comment to write the post. Even if your comment is placed in the moderation queue, the time still begins after you submit the comment.
3. After you are done, come back and leave another comment with a link to your post and your e-mail address (format: me[at]softtechreviews[dot]com).

If you do not come back and leave a comment after 5 hours are up, your invite will be available to someone else. I will look at your post to make sure it qualifies and then send you your invitation to Jooce.

Besides getting a free invitation to Jooce, you also may receive free traffic if someone clicks on your link.

Desktop Applications or Web Applications?

This past month I have been trying to use more web applications, because it’s convenient when I’m switching between computers. I have my desktop computer and my laptop. What if they were to both fail, for whatever reason?

I recently read at Jeffro2pt0 about My Uninstalled Life. It is about someone’s journey to replacing desktop applications with web applications.

The disadvantages to storing everything online are few, but could cause problems for some.

• Internet access is required
• Site availability
• Privacy and security

I can’t completely move away from desktop applications. For example, with Gmail, every so often I open up my e-mail client and allow it to download e-mails as a backup. I never know if Google will disappear one day and take my e-mail with it! Okay, maybe I’m paranoid. Actually, if I don’t have Internet access when I need to check a saved e-mail, it’s nice to know I can read it whenever I need to.

With Gmail IMAP, checking e-mail on multiple computers is much easier. Unfortunately, Gmail is also missing a much needed feature: multiple signatures for the accounts that I have set to send e-mail as. I need this because my work account requires me to have a signature. So, I need to use a desktop application for e-mail.

I used to use Outlook with NewsGator’s plugin to check feeds. I had stopped using it and started using NewsGator’s online version. I have always loved NewsGator, but I felt overwhelmed with the amount of feeds I had to read daily. Google Reader makes this much easier. I don’t think I will use a desktop client again for this. This also saves hard drive space.

For people who don’t have their own computer, but have access to Internet cafes or libraries can use web desktops. This allows you to have access to a set of applications and files on your own personal desktop from inside a browser. No need to visit several sites to access everything. Goowy and YouOS both offer this.

I prefer accessing my desktop computer from my laptop via Remote Desktop Connection. If I wasn’t home, I would want to access it via a Virtual Private Network. I like feeling like I’m at home on the computer.

I like that I can access what I want online, anywhere I want. But, I also want to be able to download that information so I can access it offline as well. This means I still need a desktop application to do it. So, even though I have started to use more web applications, I haven’t really uninstalled anything. I’ve only made it easier to access information and files from anywhere.

Is there a reason why you prefer desktop applications over web applications or vice versa?

PAYjr: Online Allowance and Chore Program

PAYjr is a program for families who want to make assigning chores and giving allowances easier. PAYjr is known for the Visa Buxx card for teens and has recently launched a partnership with Target allowing parents to give kids a Target Gift Card that is reloadable. Allowances can be deposited electronically to the card.

PAYjr Chore & Allowance is a great program for parents to help teach the little ones how to be responsible with money.  It allows parents to assign chores, print chore charts and set reminders. The great thing is that PAYjr is free to join!

Get your kids to want to help around the house and be rewarded with a Target Gift Card. PAYjr looks like a fun way to get the kids involved and learning about how to manage money.

Sponsored by PAYjr

Make Firefox Faster

This isn’t actually about making Firefox itself faster, it is for making pages load faster. The steps are really easy to follow and it is all done via the about:config. After applying just a couple changes, I noticed a difference in how fast the pages loaded.

Fasterfox and Google Web Accelerator are also mentioned in the video. Fasterfox is an extension for Firefox which will add performance and network tweaks to it. Google Web Accelerator is meant for broadband connections to speed up page loading.

This video is by Jimmy Ruska.  Check out his other videos.

13 Uses for Prism

When I first heard of Prism, I thought, “Why?” I already have Firefox. Just open a tab. But, with Prism, I can click once on a ’shortcut’, and the web application I want open is there. I can minimize it or close it. This is very useful if you want to open up Gmail or Google Reader and see in the taskbar how many new messages or feeds there are. The best feature in Prism is that you can choose not to display a menu, toolbar, etc. So, it appears as if you have another application open.

With more and more people moving over to web applications, Prism makes it easy to access them giving the look and feel of a desktop application. I can see Prism being used on tiny USB drives allowing you to access web applications anywhere.

Why should you use Prism for web applications instead of opening a new tab in a browser? When opening a lot of tabs in a browser, you can start to lose track of where that Gmail tab is or Google Reader, etc. If you’re going to leave them open 24/7, it might be better to store them on your taskbar so you can access them quickly (Alt + Tab), without having to click on a tab forcing you to leave the current tab you are looking at. This also makes it possible for you to close your browser while keeping those important web applications available.

One disadvantage that I can see when using Prism is that if you regularly use it for more than a few web applications/sites, it doesn’t remember what you last opened like most browsers do. You have to manually open each one.

Here is a list of web applications/sites you could use Prism with:

1. News Feed Aggregator (Google Reader, NewsGator, Bloglines, more.)
2. Calendar/Task Management (Google Calendar, Yahoo! Calendar, Remember The Milk, 30 Boxes)
3. Instant Messaging (Meebo, more.)
4. Office Apps (Google Docs, Google Notebook)
5. Stats (Google Analytics, Mint Stats, more.)
6. Banking (Mint, PayPal)
7. Social Networking (Pownce, Twitter, Jaiku, Last.fm, more.)
8. Gaming (Club Live Search, Monopoly Express, Pogo)
9. Blogging (WordPress, Blogger)
10. Video (Google Video, StumbleVideo, YouTube, more.)
11. E-mail (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail)
12. Planning (Room Planner)
13. Music (MeeMix, Last.fm) Need a MeeMix invite?

These are just some things you can use with Prism. Some sites may not work perfectly compared to using in a browser. One example would be that Meebo doesn’t look great in Prism, but it functions just fine.

If you save your password when logging into web applications with Prism, it makes accessing them much easier and faster. But, I don’t recommend saving your password for accessing bank accounts or other important information if you are not the only one with access to the computer.

If you use Prism for something not listed here, please share with everyone in the comments.